The present patent document relates generally to a voicemail system and more particularly to a voicemail system suitable for handheld communication devices.
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by any one of the patent document or patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
Handheld devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), cellular phones, portable computing devices and other two-way data and/or voice communication devices are fast becoming ubiquitous. In particular, powerful handheld devices that allow both voice and data communication are now fairly common in certain businesses and government agencies. Such handheld communication devices are in high demand, as they permit voice and electronic communication, as well as management of personal and business related information using email, calendars, contacts and address books, all without impeding mobility. Popular handheld devices include those supplied by Research In Motion Ltd. of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
A number of communications services that are typically accessed through handheld devices preceded the proliferation of powerful handheld devices. As such, certain inherent deficiencies may be present that could be avoided with a re-design of the provisioned application to take the capabilities of the mobile handheld device fully into account.
A typical example of such a service is voicemail. Voicemail is designed as a service provisioned by a network provider. A user accesses his or her voicemail by calling into the network, keying in an appropriate authentication such as a mailbox number and password, and generally interacting with the voicemail system by inputting data, typically through a touchtone telephone interface, and receiving feedback through voice instructions.
This has several disadvantages. First, the user is not able to see at a glance how many messages are waiting, when they were received, and who may have sent them. The user must go though each message sequentially, listening to instructions and keying in responses, to answer questions and to make menu selections regarding whether to listen to the message, skip it, delete it or store it.
Secondly, since the user cannot see the messages, the user cannot skip to the messages that he is interested in. As a result, time is wasted dealing with messages not of current interest to the user. At a minimum, at least some time must elapse as the user listens to information about the sender before moving on to the next message, even when deciding to skip the current message.
Accessing voicemail as described above has served older telephone devices well, and has provided a degree of location independence. However, today's wireless digital handheld devices have far greater digital processing power and better screens that may be harnessed to provide a superior voicemail service.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved voicemail system for handheld devices that improves ease of use, reduces unnecessary user input, and reduces network connection time.